Apple took some time after the official keynote presentation on several occasions to clarify the way it is sandboxing your fingerprints that the new Touch ID sensor uses to unlock the iPhone 5s, or authenticate Apple Store, iBooks or iTunes purchases.

We likely have Edward Snowden and overzealous NSA budget allocations to blame for the question on everyone's minds the second they heard fingerprint scanner, or for the usually silent Apple's lengthy explanation on the matter.

Apple reconfirmed for the WSJ that your fingerprint scans get stored in the processor, sandboxed in the phone itself, and never reach Apple's servers or iCloud in any way. Moreover, for now this new and effortless method of biometric authentication is indeed off-limits for all 3rd party developers, even the grand names.

In addition, you have to build one more security layer to complement the fingerprint identification method - a good old password will be asked of you if the phone is rebooted, or hasn't been unlocked for two days, in order to stall any time-sensitive tactics by a thief or a hacker. Your finger won't work then, only after the password has been entered you will be able to press your thumb against the home key and unlock the iPhone 5s.

The fingerprint unlock won't work properly also if you have your fingers sweaty, greasy, or have scars and cuts, added Apple, based on numerous testing scenarios it did with the Touch ID scanner, so just use a dry digit with uninterrupted fingerprint. Since the print is encrypted on the phone itself, the NSA also can't send one of those sneaky letters to Apple requesting his or hers fingerprints either, it seems, which is a relief this day and age.

Well remember that we allowed the government to pass the Patriot Act among other laws that made it legal for them to spy. If you only found this out because of Eric Snowden, then you really need to pay more attention to your politics.

Amen to that. Simple truth is the NSA doesn't need your fingerprints, they already have files on all their citizens that contain far more information than if you have an arch, swirl or loop print pattern on your thumb.

They explained this already, the fingerprints are stored n your phone, not on their servers, and the information is encrypted, noone has access to the fingerprints but you, anyhow it doesnt matter still waiting for the xperia Z1, but no release date yet negrielectronics mentioned sept 20 but at a really high price, even for an unlocked device.

Not only that; since the print read on the iphone uses skin resistance, they could probably use it in a similar fashion to a lie detector machine. Over time and usage they could build a profile based on skin resistance that could reveal what your emotional state is at the time you unlock your phone, based on the skin resistance data, and the tone of the communication you have afterwards.
Google this: "Personal Digital Privacy and Wireless Network Devices in a Vehicle"

this company ahh.biz posted a public service announcement about this stuff,

there is some pretty good tips here about minimizing your exposure to NSA surveillance by choosing devices that are designed properly from a privacy standpoint.

Since Apple has sandboxed the fingerprint scanner, there is no way to truly (aka objectively) know what is happening with your fingerprint scans. Apple says the fingerprint scans are only stored locally on the device. And since device data is encrypted on the device at AES256-level security, everything should be secure, right? The only problem I have with that concept is the fact that NSA has bent the process of standard-setting to enable it to be able to crack encryption that conforms to the latest standards. For example, the AES256 standard is not the hardest to crack. There was another finalist that was not selected because it was allegedly more secure than AES256....

The only way to separate fact from fairy tale, is to be a cryptanalyst, and those folks are by-and-large working for NSA. Fox guarding the henhouse, and what not.

Better to just have no expectation of security/privacy. Then you won't be disappointed.

56.Sauce (unregistered)

Dark I can't wait to read the praise and excitement when Samsung and others release a phone with a fingerprint reader. The conversations will completely turn around and everything will be just dandy lol.

When moto atrix had a finger print scanner not a huge deal was made because it was pre NSA and prism stuff but since then anything to do with security will now get big eyeballs as the NSA stuff has brought security to the fore front for a lot of non techies too which is why I think a lot of phones will have it soon and not because apple have it. The one Max is pretty much guaranteed and note 3 from earlier leaks had it in the pipeline but decided against it, my guess they going to leave that for the s5 as a USP. Am all for finger print but I want it to work 99% of the time. Apple seem to have done well but looks like people who use lotions and body oil etc might have issues. Hopefully you don't need totally dry skin.

"Furthermore, if you’re convinced that Apple is lying and the world is out to get you, why aren’t you equally worried about using a login password? How do you know Apple’s not transmitting that to the N.S.A., too?

If that’s your worry, I submit that you have much greater worries. You must also worry that Verizon is listening in to your phone calls, Visa is laughing its head off at your purchases, and Garmin is tracking your road trips on a map somewhere."

A login password is not traced back to me. Passwords can change, fingerprints can't. If David can't see the difference there, he's quite sortsighted. And yes I do worry sometimes what all those companies ergo NSA knows about people.

No I don't think that, I read enough to know it doesn't do that. Still doesn't change the fact the device knows my fingerprint. You are telling me Apple can't reproduce my fingerprint with the data stored in the A7 chip?

7.HansGoneInsane (unregistered)

You got it! Each day since the presentation I get more and more convinced of the iPhone 5S. Also the debate on PA about the 64bit CPU is going into the wrong direction. If you check more tech-serious websites, one can see how the user still benefits of the 64 bit architecture even with less than 4GB of RAM.

Once Google and MS complete their platform convergence, it'll make more sense. Apple got out the gate first with this 64 bit mobile phone CPU, now I see what they meant by forward thinking. Thanx for the link, great article. +1

Read both articles. If that's apples strategy then they are on the right track. On a side note, considering the number of leaks regarding the partnership between intel and apple, could it be that intel built this chip (since its 64 bit)? I know that your links claim that apples chip it's an ARM 64 bit chip but the writers of those articles are assuming.

59.HansGoneInsane (unregistered)

It is not my article but an article from ZNET. Who knows who built that CPU. We need to wait until ifixit did a tear down of the iPhone 5S. They usually provide that on launch day or one day after that.

The major issue here is that just very recently the public has been made aware of the NSA and "PRISM" which was being withheld from the public view for years now. Who is to say that another program code named "IGYS" I got you sucker won't come out in the future and bam all of our personal privacy rights go out the window yet again. To make matters worse there are and always will be hackers out there who can figure out a work around to gain access it's only a matter of time. I personally would just disable the option for the finger print scanner altogether then it's no foul no harm to an extent.

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